Same old story

Not much to say about Friday night’s debacle, which ended the same as the previous six games — with another A’s loss. Thanks to Eric Chavez (first with a home run, then a sacrifice fly), the A’s crawled into a 3-3 tie with the Rangers by the eighth inning, and after Oakland reliever Chad Gaudin struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the inning, who would have expected another disaster loomed around the nearest corner?

Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press

A’s reliever Chad Gaudin appears to be appalled with himself as catcher Jason Kendall approaches. Gaudin eventually would need relief himself.

But it happened. Gary Matthews Jr. walked. Michael Young walked. Mark Teixeira walked. So manager Ken Macha was forced to go deeper (Gaudin was the third pitcher of the night) into his bullpen. Ron Flores took over and served up a pitch that Hank Blalock hit up the middle for a two-run single.

That gave the Rangers a 5-3 lead. Akinori Otsuka made it stand up by retiring the lifeless elephants 1-2-3 in the ninth for his seventh save. So, Oakland, which started the showdown series in the Texas with such high hopes, are now three games behind the AL West Division-leading Rangers with games Saturday and Sunday remaining. If the A’s don’t right the ship in a hurry — they’ve been outscored 40-21 in the seven losses, and their relief pitchers have given up an average of six earned runs a game — they could be five games back at the end of the once-promising week.

Of course, things could be worse. They could be the Royals, who are 22 games behind the Central Division-leading Tigers with over four months to go in the season.